ArchitectTadao Ando / Goto Design
Structural EngineerLeslie E. Roberson Associates
ContractorCertified Construction
Façade Contractor for Bottle WallElectrix
The Morimoto Restaurant in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, designed by Tadao Ando, features a double-height decorative wall at its central stair, which visually links the restaurant’s main and lower levels. The wall is composed entirely of Tŷ Nant Spring Water curvaceous PET bottles, which are back-lit, aggregated in a hanging steel frame, and aligned by vertical steel rods. The result is a subtly glowing, two-sided, diagrid-patterned screen wall. Front consulted on this wall design, from schematic design through construction administration, testing the performance and visual effects of numerous bottle types, integrated lighting strategies, and structural organization strategies.